I officially became an aunt at 12:06 am on July 28th, 2009, and I was thrilled beyond words. The only sad part of this situation is that little Autumn Malia, and her family, live in Hawaii. Not a bad place to visit, and I am already planning a trip to meet her. After the happiness somewhat subsided, I was on a mission to make my niece become a lover of books, just like her aunt. Not having children of my own, I am going to try my hardest to give this little one the gift of the written word.
Some of the books that I had waiting for her, before she even entered the world, were some of the children classics. Books I had growing up, that I believed help to shape my childhood, and my life. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendek, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, are just some of the books that were waiting as anxiously as I was for Autumn. All those books are pretty vulnerable to little baby hands, seeing as how they are paper, but Aunt Teresa was prepared for that as well. Working at Anthology, I was able to hit the children’s section and find tons of lovely board books, that are impervious to baby hands. Some of these book that I grabbed we books that I had growing up, but many were “new” books to me. I was lucky enough to find Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and the new books to me, The Feelings Book by Todd Parr and Underwear Do’s & Don’ts by Todd Parr.
As I boxed them to send to her, I also sent a long letter to my brother and sister-in-law with strict instructions to read to her everyday. I know that she won’t really know what is going on, at least for the first few months of her life when she is being read to, but soon she will begin to understand.
Then, I can sit back, and watch her grow up with all the wonderful worlds that books provide to people, big and small. It has been a very long time since I read any children’s books, so any of you that have recommendations or suggestions I am all ears! Hope to see you at the store :)